DOUBLE gold medal winning Paralympic cyclist Simon Richardson has issued a claim for at least £300,000 in damages against a farmer who knocked him from his bike.

Mr Richardson was left with horrendous injuries after being hit by a van on the A48 at Crack Hill, near Bridgend, in August 2011 and left critically hurt at the roadside.

Edward Adams, 60, of Cross Farm, Cowbridge, was twice the drink-drive limit and driving with chronically bad eyesight when he hit Mr Richardson. He was jailed for 18 months and banned from driving for five years earlier this year.

Sentencing Adams in August, Judge Daniel Williams told him: “You first got into the car at 8.45am that morning and when you were breathalysed just after midday, you were more than twice the legal drink-drive limit.”

Mr Richardson has now issued High Court proceedings to claim unlimited damages that will exceed £300,000 over the injuries he suffered.

Adams is listed as the defendant in the claim, as is his insurance firm NFU Mutual Insurance Society Ltd. The claim says Mr Richardson intends to rely on Adams’ conviction as “evidence of negligence”.

Mr Richardson, from Porthcawl, lost his chance to participate in London 2012 after his bike was hit from behind while on a training session.

According to the document issued at the High Court, Mr Richardson was thrown from his bike and broke his back in several places, fractured his pelvis, ribs and sternum, lacerated his bowel and leg and suffered a significant injury to his lung.

His injuries are so extensive that he has been unable to return to cycling since the accident.

The document says his “treatment is ongoing” and he “requires further surgery to his back”.

The claim says Mr Richardson was a successful Paralympic cyclist who won two gold medals and a silver at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008.

At the time of the incident, he was on a training ride and had expected to be selected for London 2012.

The claim says Mr Adams “drove having consumed so much alcohol as to impair his ability to do so safely, failed to keep any proper lookout, drove into the rear of and collided with the claimant’s cycle” and “exposed the claimant to a foreseeable risk of injury”.